This year marked the fourth edition of the School’s Alumni Weekend 60-Second Slam. The event—an extension of our 60-Second Lecture Series—pits our most insightful faculty, students, and alumni against one another in their mission to provide a quick expert take on topics ranging from urban development in ancient Rome to movie franchise reboots.

LPS' Joseph Hallman's classical compositions earn him a Grammy nod.

Blake Cole

From nine to five, Joseph Hallman works at Penn’s College of Liberal and Professional Studies, interfacing with faculty and departments on course logistics. Outside the office, however, Hallman has a side gig dreaming up musical landscapes that recently landed him a Grammy nod.

Doctoral student Meg Andrews studies the slums of Rome.

Susan Ahlborn

Ancient Rome’s Subura was not a place you would want be after dark. Juvenal described the area as having mille pericula saevae urbis, the “thousand dangers of a savage city.” It’s not the kind of place you’d expect the emperors of Rome to immortalize with monuments, but Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World doctoral candidate Margaret Andrews thinks that they did—in a way.

Michael Katz argues the program won more victories than we realize.

Students organize the biggest-ever Winter Reading Project.

Heidi Smith

On January 23rd, nearly 170 undergraduates traversed the snowy campus to converge at Heyer Sky Lounge and discuss a book. The occasion was the Winter Reading Project, organized by the English department’s undergraduate advisory board to engage students in reading over the winter break.

Professor of German Simon Richter identifies a film genre where women claim their right to pleasure.

Professor of Music Carol Muller describes life under apartheid and reflects on the passing of Nelson Mandela.

Susan Ahlborn

When Nelson Mandela passed away on December 5, the mourning was worldwide. Born in South Africa in the ‘60s, Professor of Music Carol Muller lived in a society that changed around her. Here she describes the nation of her childhood and the change wrought by Mandela and others.

Graduate student composers share their work.

Susan Ahlborn

Doctoral students in composition in Penn’s Department of Music are trained in the craft of composition, contemporary repertory, and theory and analysis. A portfolio of original works is one of the central requirements of the Master's degree, and a major composition serves as the dissertation at the doctoral level.